Its collections date from prehistory to the Middle Ages and include several hundred locally discovered Bronze-Age objects such as leggings decorated with etched geometric motifs; household items, jewelry and weapons from the ancient Celts; a Gallo-Roman frieze representing the mother-goddesses of Alesia; and Merovingian sarcophagi from the fifth and sixth centuries.
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The worshipping of the Mother Goddesses contributes to the appreciation of women in society. Recognized by UNESCO, this Vietnamese ritual was inscribed on Representative List in December 2016.
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Inside this temple, the pindas of the Saptamatrikas (the seven mother goddesses) are worshipped. The temple is widely revered for its belief in curing smallpox and chicken pox.
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In Dravidian folk religion, special observances are practiced for mother goddesses on Friday. In Hinduism Fridays are important for married ladies of Hinduism. They worship God on that day.
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However, all of these fulfill many roles in the mythology and symbolism of the Celts, and cannot be limited only to motherhood. In many of their tales, their having children is only mentioned in passing, and is not a central facet of their identity. "Mother" Goddesses may also be Goddesses of warfare and slaughter, or of healing and smithcraft. Mother goddesses were at times symbols of sovereignty, creativity, birth, fertility, sexual union and nurturing.
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In the Namasttotra Sata, a Puranic list of 100 mother goddesses, Vimala of Purushottama is named. The Devi Purana also mentions it as a Pitha where feet of Sati fell.
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During Pahan Charhe which is one of the festivals in Kathmandu, Luku Māhādev (meaning Mahadev enshrined in the ground) is worshipped and portable shrines containing images of mother goddesses are paraded through the streets.
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A priestess holding a "hầu bóng" (lit. serving the reflections) ritual in a shrine. Đạo Mẫu (, ) is the worship of Mother Goddesses which was established in Vietnam in the 16th century.Asian Ethnology, Volumes 67-68 2008 p.
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Chamunda (Sanskrit: चामुण्डा, IAST: Cāmuṇḍā) also known as Chamundeshwari, Chamundi, and Raktandika is a fearsome form of Chandi, the Hindu Divine Mother Parvati and is one of the seven Matrikas (mother goddesses). She is adyashakti and parashakti.
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In ancient Greece, shells, along with pearls, are mentioned as denoting sexual love and marriage, and also mother goddesses. Different magic and sorcery items are also closely connected with this trumpet. This type of device existed long before the Buddhist era.
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A statue of Asclepius, the Greek god of healing A health deity is a god or goddess in mythology or religion associated with health, healing and wellbeing. They may also be related to childbirth or Mother Goddesses. They are a common feature of polytheistic religions.
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She is included in a group of malevolent Hindu mother goddesses called the Matrikas and also in the group of Yoginis and Grahinis (Seizers). Ancient Indian medical texts prescribe her worship to protect children from diseases. A group of multiple Putanas is mentioned in ancient Indian texts.
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The ritual feeding of an Umay idol in Khakassia, Russia Umay (also known as Umai; ; , Umay ana; , Umáj / Ymaj, ) is the goddess of fertility in Turkic mythology and Tengriism and as such related to women, mothers and children. Umay resembles earth-mother goddesses found in various other world religions.
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Chausathi Jogini Temple. The Devi Purana identifies Gananayika or Vinayaki as the shakti characterized by her elephant head and ability to remove obstacles, and includes her as the ninth Matrika.Pal, P. The Mother Goddesses According to the Devipurana in Singh, Nagendra Kumar, Encyclopaedia of Hinduism, Published 1997, Anmol Publications PVT. LTD., p.
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Replica of The Three Mother Goddesses (Deae Matres) sculpture set in the wall of St Martin's church. The original resides in Grantham Museum. Ancaster was a small town in the Roman province of Britannia. It is sited on the Roman road known as the Ermine Street and is situated in the county of Lincolnshire.
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Cave 7 is located a few steps east of Cave 6. It consists of a large niche containing damaged figures of the eight mother goddesses, each with a weapon above their head, carved on the back wall of the cave. The cave is flanked by shallow niches with abraded figures of Kārttikeya and Gaṇeśa, now visible only in outline.
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Members of the caste are considered to be divine by a large section of society. Women of the caste are adored as mother goddesses by other major communities of this region, including Rajputs. For centuries, the Charans were known for their reputation of preferring to die rather than break a promise. Charan society is based on written genealogy.
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The Great Mother: An Analysis of the Archetype () is a book about mother goddesses by the psychologist Erich Neumann. The dedication reads, "To C. G. Jung friend and master in his eightieth year". Although Neumann completed the German manuscript in Israel in 1951,Liebscher (2015) article, p. ix. The Great Mother was first published in English in 1955.
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In 1891, the installation of modern water pipes in the area caused destruction to the northeast corner of the fort, particularly the rampart, Dere Street, and a few vicus houses, but did uncover a large Roman altar dedicated by Pomponius Donatus "beneficiarius of the governor" to Jupiter and the Matres Ollototae (three Celtic mother goddesses originally from the continent).
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Chamunda, LACMA, Bengal, 11th century AD India. Chamunda is one of the saptamatrikas or Seven Mothers. The Matrikas are fearsome mother goddesses, abductors and eaters of children; that is, they were emblematic of childhood pestilence, fever, starvation, and disease. They were propitiated in order to avoid those ills, that carried off so many children before they reached adulthood.
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Because of their concentration in the Danubian provinces, Silvanae are sometimes thought to be Imperial forms of the Celtic Matres or Matronae, "mother" goddesses who often appear as a clothed triad bearing flowers or other vegetative symbols.Dorcey, The Cult of Silvanus,. The identification is particularly suggested by an inscription from Lugdunum that names Matres Pannoniorum.CIL XIII.1766.
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The religious art of Nepal and Kathmandu in particular consists of an iconic symbolism of the Mother Goddesses such as: Bhavani, Durga, Gaja-Lakshmi, Hariti-Sitala, Mahsishamardini, Saptamatrika (seven mother goddesses), and Sri-Lakshmi (wealth-goddess). From the 3rd century BCE, apart from the Hindu gods and goddesses, Buddhist monuments from the Ashokan period (it is said that Ashoka visited Nepal in 250 BC) have embellished Nepal in general and the valley in particular. These art and architectural edifices encompass three major periods of evolution: the Licchavi or classical period (500 to 900 AD), the post-classical period (1000 to 1400 AD), with strong influence of the Palla art form; the Malla period (1400 onwards) that exhibited explicitly tantric influences coupled with the art of Tibetan Demonology.Jha p.
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In many areas, such Matronae were depicted in groups of three (or sometimes two) (see Matres and Matronae for the triads of mother goddesses well attested throughout northern Europe). The name of Welsh mythological figure Modron, mother of Mabon is derived from the same etymon. By analogy, Dea Matrona may conceivably have been considered the mother of the Gaulish Maponos.
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Ancestral gods are often deified heroic persons. Vietnamese mythology preserves narratives telling of the actions of many of the cosmic gods and cultural heroes. The Vietnamese indigenous religion is sometimes identified as Confucianism since it carries values that were emphasized by Confucius. Đạo Mẫu is a distinct form of Vietnamese folk religion, giving prominence to some mother goddesses into its pantheon.
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The inscription, written in Sanskrit, records the building of a temple of Viṣṇu and an accompanying shrine for the mother goddesses or Mātṛkas by a king's minister named Mayūrākṣaka. The goddess shrine is specifically described as a "terrifying abode of the divine Mothers" (mātṛṇāṃ veśmātyugraṃ). The inscription is dated anno 480, on the bright thirteenth day of the month Kārttika. The year corresponds to 423-24 CE.
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The larger skillet and one of the gold rings each have an inscription, a dedication to the mother-goddesses. This list does not wholly accord with Haverfield's: in particular he suggests that an oval silver dish 18 inches long and 2 pieces of a silver bridle bit never reached the British Museum.<< HER 744 >> J.C. Bruce, 1875, Lapidarium Septentrionale, pp. 272–3, no. 535-6R.
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Archaeology and World Religion (Editor: Timothy Insoll), Routledge, , pp. 42–44.Tiwari, Jagdish Narain (1971). Studies in Goddess Cults in Northern India, with Reference to the First Seven Centuries AD, Ph.D. thesis awarded by Australian National University, pp. 215–244. The idea of eight mother goddesses together is found in Himalayan Shaivism, while seven divine mothers (Sapta Matrika) is more common in South India.
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The statue was discovered in 1880 on or beneath Bar Convent, York along with three religious altars. It was donated to the Yorkshire Museum (then the Yorkshire Philosophical Society) by the Mother Superior. The altars were dedicated to Mars, the Mother Goddesses, and Veteris respectively. It was carved "with great dexterity" from local sandstone and may originally have come from the fortress at Eboracum.
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Varahi (, ) is one of the Matrikas, a group of seven mother goddesses in the Hindu religion. With the head of a sow, Varahi is the shakti (feminine energy) of Varaha, the boar avatar of the god Vishnu. In Nepal, she is called Barahi. Varahi is worshipped by three practices of Hinduism : Shaivism (devotees of Shiva), Brahmanism (devotees of Brahma), and especially Shaktism (goddess worship).
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Epigraphic references to the Kaulas Tantric practices are rare. Reference is made in the early 9th century to vama (left- hand) Tantras of the Kaulas. Literary evidence suggests Tantric Buddhism was probably flourishing by the 7th-century. Matrikas, or fierce mother goddesses that later are closely linked to Tantra practices, appear both in Buddhist and Hindu arts and literature between the 7th and 10th centuries.
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Chamunda (Sanskrit: चामुण्डा, Cāmuṇḍā), also known as Chamundi, Chamundeshwari and Charchika, is a fearsome aspect of Devi, the Hindu Divine Mother and one of the seven Matrikas (mother goddesses). She is also one of the chief Yoginis, a group of sixty-four or eighty-one Tantric goddesses, who are attendants of the warrior goddess Durga.Wangu, p. 94 The name is a combination of Chanda and Munda, two monsters whom Chamunda killed.
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Other communities worship manifold "Mother Goddesses" as their clan or family patrons. A different branch, the Nanakpanth, follows the teachings of the Guru Granth Sahib, also known as the holy book of the Sikhs. This diversity, especially in rural Sindh, often thwarts classical definitions between Hinduism, Sikhism and Islam. One of the most important places of worship for Hindus in Pakistan is the shrine of Shri Hinglaj Mata temple in Balochistan.
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At a courtyard inside the old royal palace at Patan, masked dancers representing Asta Matrikā (eight mother goddesses) reenact the victory of Goddess Durga over the demon Mahisasur. The performances were begun in the 17th century. The Asta Matrika dance is also performed to remove obstacles in the city caused by bad spirits. Worshipping the eight goddesses is believed to bring good to the country and the people.
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Umay (The Turkic root umāy originally meant 'placenta, afterbirth') is the goddess of fertility and virginity. Umay resembles earth-mother goddesses found in various other world religions and is the daughter of Tengri. Öd Tengri is the god of time being not well-known, as it states in the Orkhon stones, "Öd tengri is the ruler of time" and a son of Kök Tengri. Boz Tengri, like Öd Tengri, is not known much.
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L. Edmunds, Approaches to Greek Myth, 184 Aphrodite and Adonis, Attic red-figure aryballos-shaped lekythos by Aison (c. 410 BC, Louvre, Paris). In addition to Indo-European and Near Eastern origins, some scholars have speculated on the debts of Greek mythology to the still poorly understood pre-Hellenic societies of Greece, such as the Minoans and so-called Pelasgians. This is especially true in the case of chthonic deities and mother goddesses.
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While the custom of father worship can be seen in these cases, the protecting deities of the villages were always in female form, who were worshiped in open groves ("kavu"). These hypaethral temples had trees, stone symbols of Mother Goddesses or other naturalistic or animistic image as objects of worship. The continuity of this early culture is seen in the folk arts, cult rituals, worship of trees, serpents and mother images in kavus.
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Matrikas ('Mother Goddesses') are the feminine, personified powers of different Devas (and avatars of Vishnu). For example, the female form (or Shakti) of Vishnu is Vaishnavi, of the man-lion avatar Narasimha it is Narasimhi, of the tortoise avatar Kurma it is Kumari, and of the boar avatar Varaha it is Varahi. There is no scriptural evidence that any of Matrikas are counted as de-facto avatars of Vishnu or any other Deva.
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The presiding deity of this temple is the goddess from Kashmir, known as Chandika, also called Mahartham and Kalasarppini. The Sreechakra, designed by the great Sivayogi Thayyavur Sivasankar, remains in the sanctum sanctorum, where the presence of the goddess is believed to be ever present. Idols of Shiva, Thevaara Bhagavathi, Lord Ayyappa, and Vigneswara, Khsethrapaalan are also consecrated in this temple. In the sanctum sanctorum on the southern wall idols of Sapthamathrukkal ( seven mother Goddesses) are encarved.
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Gender is a significant phenomenon in Chinese mythology. On the one hand, there are traditions about sexual reproduction, fertility/mother goddesses, and evidence by scholars (such as Jordan Paper) of a patriarchal influence over time. Tu'er Shen is an example of a gender-oriented deity. The marking of gender in Chinese is different than in English, especially in Classical Chinese, gender is not marked in the case of most nouns and pronouns, thus making gender often difficult to determine.
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Goddess Durga became happy with the slaughter and blessed the goddess that she would be known and worshipped as Chamunda. In Hinduism, Chamundi, Chamundeshwari and Charchika, is a fearsome aspect of Devi, the Hindu Divine Mother and one of the seven Matrikas (mother goddesses). She is also one of the chief Yoginis, a group of sixty-four or eighty-one Tantric goddesses, who are attendants of Durga. She is closely associated with Kali, another fierce aspect of Devi.
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Female head wearing the polos. Bronze, second half of the 7th century BC. From Crete The polos crown (plural poloi; ) is a high cylindrical crown worn by mythological goddesses of the Ancient Near East and Anatolia and adopted by the ancient Greeks for imaging the mother goddesses Rhea and Cybele and Hera.Liddell and Scott define πόλος as 'a head-dress worn by goddesses.' The word also meant an axis or pivot and is cognate with the English, 'pole'.
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MacLeod and Mees (2006), following Mees (2004), interpret the ring as possibly representing either a "temple-ring" or a "sacred oath-ring", the existence of which in pagan times is documented in Old Norse literature and archaeological finds.MacLeod and Mees (2006:173-174); Ullberg (2007). Furthermore, they suggest that the inscription could be proof of the existence of 'mother goddess' worship among the Goths - echoing the well-documented worship of 'mother goddesses' in other parts of the Germanic North.
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Shrine of Bixia at Mount Tai, Shandong. The worship of mother goddesses for the cultivation of offspring is present all over China, but predominantly in northern provinces. There are nine main goddesses, and all of them tend to be considered as manifestations or attendant forces of a singular goddess identified variously as Bixia ( "Blue Dawn"), the daughter or female consort of the Green God of Mount Tai, or Houtu ( the "Queen of the Earth").Jones, 2013. pp.
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Chamunda (Sanskrit: चामुण्डा, Cāmuṇḍā), also known as Chamundi, Chamundeshwari and Charchika, is a fearsome aspect of Devi, the Hindu Divine Mother and one of the seven Matrikas (mother goddesses). She is also one of the chief Yoginis, a group of sixty-four or eighty-one Tantric goddesses, who are attendants of the warrior goddess Durga.[2] The name is a combination of Chanda and Munda, two monsters whom Chamunda killed. She is closely associated with Kali, another fierce aspect of Devi.
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In a 1st–3rd century depiction from Kankali Tila near Mathura (currently in Mathura Museum), Naigamesha is depicted with a goat's head and short, backward turning horns, a long beard (goatee) and "drooping" ears. Another sculpture from the 10th–13th century depicts him in the company of Hindu deities. The group of seven Hindu mother-goddesses, the Saptamatrika – who are associated with children – are surrounded by their usual companions Shiva and Ganesha as well as Naigamesha. The goat-features mirror the earlier depiction.
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They are niches where erotic sculptures are fitted all round which are a major attraction among visitors. Some of these erotic sculptures are very finely carved and are in mithuna (coitus) postures with maidens flanking the couple, which is a frequently noted motif. There is also a "male figure suspended upside" in coitus posture, a kind of yogic pose, down on his head. The niches also have sculptures of Saptamatrikas, the septad of mother goddesses along with the gods Ganesha and Virabhadra.
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Shamanism is part of the Vietnamese religion of the tín ngưỡng thờ Mẫu (worship of mother goddesses). In Vietnam, this ritual practice is called lên đồng or also known as hầu bóng, or hầu đồng, sessions involve artistic elements such as music, singing, dance and the use of costumes. Hát chầu văn, which is a traditional folk art of northern Vietnam, related to the tín ngưỡng thờ Mẫu and shamanism. The genre is famous for its use in rituals for deity mediumship.
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The Shitala Devi temple In addition to the Agam Kuan, the archaeological site features a temple, as well as several ancient and medieval sculptures. The Shitala Devi temple is adjacent to the well, and is dedicated to Shitala Devi, which houses the pindas of the Saptamatrikas (the seven mother goddesses). The temple is widely venerated for its belief in curing smallpox and chicken pox, and it is also visited by devotees for wish fulfillment. The temple's female priest is an uncommon practice.
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He organised two academic conferences there, which subsequently led to two edited volumes: The Domestication of Plants and Animals and Man, Settlement and Urbanism, both of which became "standard texts." In 1967 he published Palaeolithic Cave Art, a book co-written with his girlfriend Andrée Rosenfeld, while the following year he published his doctoral research as a monograph titled Anthropomorphic Figurines of Predynastic Egypt and Neolithic Crete, which critiqued the claims regarding mother goddesses that had been popularised by Marija Gimbutas.
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In Kathmandu, the biggest street festival is Yenya (Indra Jatra) when three cars bearing the living goddess Kumari and two other child gods are pulled through the streets and masked dance performances are held. The two godchildren are Ganesh and Bhairav. Another major celebration is Pahan Charhe when portable shrines bearing images of mother goddesses are paraded through Kathmandu. During the festival of Jana Baha Dyah Jatra, a temple car with an image of Karunamaya is drawn through central Kathmandu for three days.
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Among the divinities transcending tribal boundaries were the Matres, Cernunnos, the sky-god Taranis, and Epona. Epona, the horse- goddess, was invoked by devotees living as far apart as Britain, Rome and Bulgaria. A distinctive feature of the mother-goddesses was their frequent depiction as a triad in many parts of Britain, in Gaul and on the Rhine, although it is possible to identify strong regional differences within this group. The Celtic sky-god too had variations in the way he was perceived and his cult expressed.
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Shachi (Sanskrit: शची, IAST: Śacī) also known as Indrani (queen of Indra), Aindrila, Mahendri, Pulomaja and Poulomi is the goddess of beauty in Hinduism (specifically, early Vedic accounts), being a source of jealousy because there was no one who did not long for her, and a daughter of Puloman, an Asura who was killed by Indrani's future husband, Indra. She is one of the seven Matrikas (mother goddesses). She is described as beautiful and having the most beautiful eyes. She is associated with lions and elephants.
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In Asia Minor, she was often conflated with local mother goddess figures, such as Cybele, and Anahita in Iran. However, the archetype of the mother goddess was not highly compatible with the Greek pantheon, and though the Greeks had adopted worship of Cybele and other Anatolian mother goddesses as early as the 7th century BCE, she was not directly conflated with any Greek goddesses; instead, bits and pieces of her worship and aspects were absorbed variously by Artemis, Aphrodite, and others as Eastern influence spread.
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118 Only the western Hurrians worshipped Ḫebat and her son Šarruma, who were of Syrian origin. Other important deities were the mother goddesses Ḫudena Ḫudellura, the Syrian oath-goddess and Kubaba, as well as the Mesopotamian god of wisdom, Ea (Eya- šarri), and the death god Ugur. At least among the western Hurrians, the gods were divided into male and female groups, as is clear in the from Hattusa. The male gods (enna turroḫena) were led by Teššub in his various manifestations, while the female gods (enna aštoḫena) were led by Ḫebat and her children.
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Sámi deities are shown on several drum membranes. These are the high god Ráðði, the demiurge and sustainer Varaldi olmmai, the thunder and fertility god Horagallis, the weather god Bieggolmmái, the hunting god Leaibolmmái, the sun god Beaivi / Biejjie, the mother goddesses Máttaráhkká, Sáráhkká, Juoksáhkká og Uksáhkká, the riding Ruto who brought sickness and death, and Jábmeáhkká – the empress of the death realms. Some matters from the non-Sámi world also appears on several drums. These are interpreted as attempts to understand and master the new impulses brought into the Sámi society.
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Debate continues on whether ancient matriarchal religion historically existed. American scholar Camille Paglia has argued that "Not a shred of evidence supports the existence of matriarchy anywhere in the world at any time," and further that "The moral ambivalence of the great mother Goddesses has been conveniently forgotten by those American feminists who have resurrected them." In her book The Myth of Matriarchal Prehistory (2000), scholar Cynthia Eller discusses the origins of the idea of matriarchal prehistory, evidence for and against its historical accuracy, and whether the idea is good for modern feminism.
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138 Three Vishvarupa icons from Shamalaji, Gujarat dated sixth century have three visible animal heads and eight arms, with a band of beings emanating from the upper part of the deity forming an aureole. Unlike other icons which are in standing position, the Shamalaji icons are in a crouching position, as though giving birth and is similar to icons of birth-giving mother goddesses in posture. The posture may convey the idea that he is giving birth to the beings radiating from him, though none of them are near his lower area.Srinivasan pp.
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There is evidence of numerous temples and shrines in Lugdunum. Traditional Gallic gods like mallet-bearing Sucellus and the mother goddesses called the Matres (depicted with cornucopiae) continued to be worshiped somewhat syncretistically along with the Roman gods. Additional religious cults came with the oriental immigrants, who brought the eastern mystery religions to the Rhône valley. A major shrine of the Phrygian goddess Cybele was built in nearby Vienne, and she also seems to have found special favor in Lugdunum in the late 1st century and 2nd century.
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There is though a greater degree of fuzziness concerning the function and role of goddesses, which may have formed a preexisting structure allowing the absorption of the local Mediterranean mother goddesses, nurturers and protectresses .G. Dumezil "De Janus à Vesta" in Tarpeia (Paris, 1946), pp. 33–113; M. Marconi, Riflessi mediterranei nella piú antica religione laziale (Milan, 1940). As a consequence the position of the gods of beginning would not be the issue of a diachronic process of debasement undergone by a supreme uranic god, but rather a structural feature inherent to their theology.
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The fall of the victim and the condition of their entrails were used to predict the future while at the same time, the people sought redemption from the gods.Martinez J. La religiosidad de los pueblos hispanos vista por los autores griegos y latinos 1977 Accessed September 8, 2007. (Spanish) The Cantabrians, being an agrarian society, worshipped fertility mother goddesses related to the Moon and influencing the phases of sowing and gathering of crops. A Celtic group worshipping a sea god was assimilated to that of the Roman Neptune.
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Matrona (National Archaeology Museum, England) In the mainland Celtic area, a great number of goddesses are known; on account of the lack of political unity of the Celts, they seem to have been regional deities. Unlike the Greeks and Romans, the Celts never had a single pantheon, although the Romans attempted to connect them up on the basis of their functions, through the Interpretatio Romana. The mother goddesses which had great importance in Celtic religion were also united in this way under the names Matres and Matronae. In the mythology of the British Celts almost no goddesses are present.
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The Ganesha is potbellied, has modaka (laddu or rice balls, sweetmeat) in his left hand and his trunk is reaching out to get one. This makes the cave notable as it sets the floruit for the widespread acceptance and significance of Ganesha in the Hindu pantheon to about 401 CE. The presence of all three major traditions within the same temple is also significant and it presages the norm for temple space in subsequent centuries.Willis, The Archaeology of Hindu Ritual, p. 142. In addition to Durga, Cave 6 depicts the Hindu matrikas (mother goddesses from all three traditions).
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There has been a significant sharing of ideas, ritual grammar and concepts between Tantric Buddhism (Vajrayana tradition) found in Nepal and Tibet and the Tantric Shakta tradition of Hinduism. Both movements cherish female deities, view the female creativity as the power behind the universe, and the feminine as the ontological primary. According to Miranda Shaw, "the confluence of Buddhism and Shaktism is such that Tantric Buddhism could properly be called Shakta Buddhism". The Buddhist Aurangabad Caves about 100 kilometers from the Ajanta Caves, dated to the 6th to 7th-century CE, show Buddhist Matrikas (mother Goddesses of Shaktism) next to the Buddha.
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In US usage, it can also mean the school from which one graduated. The phrase is variously translated as "nourishing mother", "nursing mother", or "fostering mother", suggesting that a school provides intellectual nourishment to its students. Before its current usage, alma mater was an honorific title for various Latin mother goddesses, especially Ceres or Cybele,Shorter Oxford English Dictionary, 3rd edition and later in Catholicism for the Virgin Mary. It entered academic usage when the University of Bologna adopted the motto Alma Mater Studiorum ("nurturing mother of studies"), which describes its heritage as the oldest operating university in the Western world.
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Margaret Murray's theory of the historical origins of the Horned God has been used by Wiccans to create a myth of historical origins for their religion. There is no verifiable evidence to support claims that the religion originates earlier than the mid-20th century. Modern scholarship has disproved Margaret Murray's theory, however various horned gods and mother goddesses were indeed worshipped in the British Isles during the ancient and early Medieval periods. The "father of Wicca", Gerald Gardner, who adopted Margaret Murray's thesis, claimed Wicca was a modern survival of an ancient pan-European pagan religion.
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After the post-marriage ceremony, the married couple being to leave the bride's home. In the ninth step, the husband and wife return to the kitchen of the wife and worship their ancestors and the seven Mother Goddesses. In the tenth, eleventh, and twelfth step, the couple leave the wife's house as she is given a garland from her parents; the wife and husband enter the jagya and are then escorted out riding on palanquins as they return to their permanent home of the husband. The thirteenth step beings once they enter the jagya of the groom and his virgin sisters welcome the wife in a ceremony called arti syäl.
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Terracotta relief of the Matres, from Bibracte, city of the Aedui in Gaul Mother goddesses are a recurrent feature in Celtic religions. The epigraphic record reveals many dedications to the Matres or Matronae, which are particularly prolific around Cologne in the Rhineland. Iconographically, Celtic mothers may appear singly or, quite often, triply; they usually hold fruit or cornucopiae or paterae; they may also be full-breasted (or many-breasted) figures nursing infants. Welsh and Irish tradition preserve a number of mother figures such as the Welsh Dôn, Rhiannon (‘great queen’) and Modron (from Matrona, ‘great mother’), and the Irish Danu, Boand, Macha and Ernmas.
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History and culture of Gauri Pundah village is very rich. The first part of the name of this village reflects the name of the mother goddess Gauri, the consort of Lord Shiva, whereas the second part Pundah has a famous rural temple known as Mahadeo Sthan, dedicated entirely to the worship of Shiva. This temple is so famous in the region that people from the nearby villages throng to it to offer prayers to Lord Shiva particularly on the occasion of Mahashivratri and Shravan Masa as per Vikram Calendar. Nearby located are Saptamatrika (seven mother goddesses, consorts of various Hindu gods) temple and Mahavir Sthan (temple dedicated to Lord Hanumana).
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305 "mother goddess religion (Đạo Mẫu)" While scholars like Ngô Đức Thịnh propose that it represents a systematic mother goddess, Đạo Mẫu draws together fairly disparate beliefs and practices.Ngô Đức Thịnh,"The Cult of the Female Spirits and the Mother Goddesses 'Mẫu'," Vietnamese Studies 121, no.3 (1996):83-96"Đạo Mẫu ở Việt Nam" [The Mother Goddess Religion in Vietnam] (Hà Nội: Nhà Xuất Bản Văn Hóa Thông Tin, 1996)"The Pantheon for the Cult of Holy Mothers," Vietnamese Studies 131, no.1 (1999): 20-35"The Mother Goddess Religion: Its History, Pantheon, and Practices," in Possessed by the Spirits: Mediumship in Contemporary Vietnamese Communities, ed.
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Outside its entrance, in what was a mandapa and now is eroded remnants of a courtyard are matrikas (mother goddesses), eroded likely because of weathering. This is one of the three groups of matrikas found at Udayagiri site in different caves. The prominent presence of the matrikas in a cave dedicated to Shiva suggests that the divine mothers had been accepted within the Shaivism tradition by about 401 CE. Some scholars speculate that there may have been Skanda here, but others state the evidence is unclear. The cave is also notable for depicting a harp player on its lintel, putting a floruit of 401 CE for this musical instrument in India.
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The altar stones and inscriptions suggest the gods worshipped included Jupiter (two altar-stones), mother goddesses, of which one relief shows three seated female figures, and Silvanus. Water-related gods such as Neptune and Oceanus' altars have also been recovered, probably worshipped because of the fort's proximity to the river. Some remains of the bridge were thought to have been discovered in 1872 during the construction of the Swing Bridge over the Tyne, but contemporary scholarship suggests the site of the bridge remains unknown, and none of its fabric has been discovered. The length of the Roman bridge from bank to bank is estimated to have been .
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Some of the names above were once associated with independent goddesses (such as Ninmah and Ninmenna), who later became identified and merged with Ninhursag, and myths exist in which the name Ninhursag is not mentioned. Possibly included among the original mother goddesses was Damgalnuna (great wife of the prince) or Damkina (true wife), the consort of the god Enki.Jeremy A. Black, Anthony Green, Tessa Rickards, Gods, demons, and symbols of ancient Mesopotamia: an illustrated dictionary (1992), p. 56f. & 75 The mother goddess had many epithets including shassuru or 'womb goddess', tabsut ili 'midwife of the gods', 'mother of all children' and 'mother of the gods'.
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235x235px These rooms show examples of architecture, human representation and other items that date from the Mġarr, Ġgantija, Saflieni and Tarxien phases of Maltese prehistory. The temples that were built at this time are considered to be the world’s first free standing monuments and are listed in the UNESCO World Heritage List. The museum exhibits numerous corpulent statues representing human bodies unearthed from temple excavations, along with phallic representations. Until recently the statues were called Mother Goddesses, Fat Ladies, Deities and Priests among other names, but it is now argued that these statues were probably asexual and represented a human being, irrespective of whether it was male or female.
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Stone carving of the goddess Matrona Stone carving of the goddess Matrona In Celtic mythology, Dea Matrona ("divine mother goddess") was the goddess who gives her name to the river Marne (ancient MatrŏnaAncient authors referring to the river Marne as Matrona include Julius Caesar, Ammianus Marcellinus, Ausonius and Sidonius Apollinaris. ) in Gaul. The Gaulish theonym Mātr-on-ā signifies "great mother" and the goddess of the Marne has been interpreted to be a mother goddess.Cf. Many Gaulish religious images—including inexpensive terracotta statues mass-produced for use in household shrines—depict mother goddesses nursing babies or holding fruits, other foods, or small dogs in their laps.
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Gopalpur Zoo (14 km from Palampur): This zoological park, officially known as Dhauladhar Nature Park, developed by H.P government, is a good place for animal lovers and children. The park has a wide range of animals such as lion, leopard, bear, porcupine. Chamunda Devi Temple (21.2 km from Palampur): Chamunda Devi, also known as Chamundi, Chamundeshwari and Charchika, is a fearsome aspect of Devi, the Hindu Divine Mother and one of the seven Matrikas (mother goddesses). She is also one of the primary Yoginis, a group of sixty-four or eighty-one Tantric goddesses, who are family and friends of the warrior goddess Durga.
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Actors dressed up as Kumari vestal virgins take part in New Year's Day parade in Kathmandu. Actors dressed up as Ajima mother goddesses take part in New Year's Day parade in Kathmandu. Part of New Year's Day parade Nepal Sambat (Nepalese: नेपाल सम्बत) is the lunar calendar used by the Nepalese-speaking people native to the Indian subcontinent of Nepalese nationality and ethnic Nepalis. The Calendar era began on 20 October 879 AD, with 1140 in Nepal Sambat corresponding to the year 2019–2020 AD. Nepal Sambat appeared on coins, stone and copper plate inscriptions, royal decrees, chronicles, Hindu and Buddhist manuscripts, legal documents and correspondence.
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In oral tradition, Samsin Halmoni would be the 3 daughters of the virgin sky goddess who became the first mudang shamaness, who was named T'ang Kum Agassi, or Tanggum Aeggi. She descended from heaven to Earth and gave birth to the Samsin in a cave, which is a reference to bear worship and Korean shamanism. Later, after male-oriented Buddhism has entered Korea, the myth was amended with Tanggum Aeggi also giving birth to 3 sons, who became Buddhistic heaven gods. The Samsin Halmoni then created and gave birth to the first humans on Earth, becoming the mother goddesses and ancestors of all humans.
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Brahmani (Sanskrit: ब्रह्माणी, IAST: Brahmāṇī) or Brahmi (Sanskrit: ब्राह्मी, IAST: Brāhmī), is one of the Sapta Matrika (seven Mother) Goddesses called Matrikas.Dictionary of Hindu Lore and Legend () by Anna DallapiccolaHindu Goddesses: Vision of the Divine Feminine in the Hindu Religious Traditions () by David Kinsley She is a form of Saraswati and is considered as the Shakti of the creator god Brahma in Hinduism. She is an aspect of Adi Shakti, possessing the "Rajas Guna" and therefore is the source of Brahma's power. તે વેદમાતા તરીકે પણ ઓળખાય છે બ્રહ્મણી માં હંસ ઉપર બિરાજમાન, કમળ જેવા નેત્રો વાળી અને ભક્તો માટે વાત્સલ્યમૂર્તિ રૂપ છે ૐ બ્રહ્મણી માતાય નમ.
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Some relatively high quality terracotta statuettes have been recovered from the Mauryan Empire strata in the excavations of Mathura in northern India."The relatively high quality of terracotta sculptures recovered from Maurya strata at Mathura suggests some level of artistic activity prior to the second century BCE." Most of these terracottas show what appears to be female deities or mother goddesses."The largest number of mother-goddess figurines has been found in western Uttar Pradesh in Mathura, which in the Mauryan period became an important terracotta making centre outside Magadh." in However, several figures of foreigners also appear in the terracottas from the 4th to the 2nd century BCE, which are either described simply as "foreigners" or Persian or Iranian because of their foreign features.
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The extensive damage and dislocation of its ruins before the 20th-century has led to misidentification and misclassification of the temple. According to Meister, and Hermann Goetz, the temple was broadly assumed in the colonial era to have been a Vishnu temple that was later converted into Shiva temple, the temple may have actually started as a temple dedicated to the Matrikas (mother goddesses), but one that included the motifs of Vaishnanism and Shaivism. The evidence for these are now in the ruins held by the Gwalior Museum and Delhi National Museum. Similarly, the assumed "southern influence" is likely an incorrect hypothesis as well, proposed by those who saw something similar in the South Indian majestic gopuram or the vaulted roofs at Mahabalipuram, Tamil Nadu.
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As well as aspiring to Kshatriya status, they adopted ritually pure practices such as vegetarianism, worship of Krishna rather than mother goddesses, and giving dowries rather than using the then-prevalent bride price system. They also retained some of their local customs, such as a preference for singing vernacular devotional songs rather than the more Brahmanic Sanskrit variants. The Patidar practice of hypergamous marriage was also distinct from that of the Kolis, with the former marrying relatively locally and across boundaries within their own community while the latter dispersed over a wide area in order to marry with Rajputs. The Patidar system caused the creation of endogamous marriage circles based around groups of equal-status villages known as gols, thus strengthening ties.
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According to K. K. N. Kurup, it can be said that all the prominent characteristics of primitive, tribal, religious worship had widened the stream of Theyyam, where "even the followers of Islam are associated with the cult in its functional aspect" and made it a deep-rooted folk religion of millions. For instance, Bhagawathi, the Mother Goddesses had and still has an important place in Theyyam. Besides this, the practices like spirit-worship, ancestor-worship, hero-worship, masathi-worship, tree-worship, animal worship, serpent-worship, the worship of the Goddesses of disease and the worship of Gramadevata (Village-Deity) are included in the mainstream of the Theyyam. Along with these Gods and Goddesses there exist innumerable folk Gods and Goddesses.
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Geoffrey Chaucer, The Legend of Good Women, Hypermnestra 19 A goddess spinning appears in a bracteate from southwest Germany and a relief from Trier shows three mother goddesses, with two of them holding distaffs. Tenth-century German ecclesiastical writings denounce the popular belief in three sisters who determined the course of a man's life at his birth. An Old Irish hymn attests to seven goddesses who were believed to weave the thread of destiny, which demonstrates that these spinster fate-goddesses were present in Celtic mythology as well. A Lithuanian folktale recorded in 1839 recounts that a man's fate is spun at his birth by seven goddesses known as the deivės valdytojos and used to hang a star in the sky; when he dies, his thread snaps and his star falls as a meteor.
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As the essays that follow suggest, what is more likely is that interpretations of female deities, their intersection with the roles of women in antiquity, and the place of these debates in modern society will be rewritten many times in the future. Talalay in James, S.L.; Dillon, S. (2012)Goddesses of the prime of life are often described as mother goddesses, although that term is questionable, given that the goddesses may not be maternal in any conventional sense. For instance, the single child of Cybele was conceived upon her while she was in the form of a rock and was never reared by her (see Southeastern Europe). Similarly, the eastern Mediterranean goddess Ninlil gave birth by making images of people from clay, as did the Chinese goddess Nüwa.
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In 2011, he established Dream Studio, directly producing music products for local and foreign artists, especially the production of the album Classic Meets Chillout (2012) and Vietnam's first real-landscape performance Thuở ấy Xứ Đoài (Once Upon A Time in Doai Province, 2017). Weekly performance Tứ Phủ (Four Palaces, 2015–present), presenting the Practices related to Viet beliefs in Mother Goddesses and being made by his company Viet Theatre, also received many positive reviews from the audiences as it is always in the top 3 cultural destinations for international visitors in Hanoi. Việt Tú is the most successful director at the Dedication Music Award with 5 awards and 8 nominations. Earlier, he was also awarded the Breakthrough Award for the Nhật thực and won the VTV Bài hát tôi yêu twice.
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Goddess Ganga at the entrance of Cave 21 Cave 21, also called Rameshwar Lena, is another early excavation whose construction has been credited to the Kalachuri dynasty. The cave was completed prior to the ascension of Rashtrakuta dynasty which went on to expand the caves at Ellora Although the cave features similar works to those in other Ellora caves, it also has a number of unique pieces, such as those depicting the story of goddess Parvati's pursuit of Shiva. Carvings depicting Parvati and Shiva at leisure, Parvati's wedding to Shiva, Shiva dancing and Kartikeya (Skanda) have been found in other caves. The cave also features a large display of the Sapta Matrika, the seven mother goddesses of the Shakti tradition of Hinduism, flanked on either side by Ganesha and Shiva.
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Kathmandu was planned in the shape of Manjushree's sword with the tip positioned to north and the base to the south The period 750–1200 is considered as a transitional kingdom in power in Kathmandu Valley, though concrete verifiable records are not available. According to custom, however, in the late 900s, Kathmandu was established by the King Gunakama Deva at the banks of Bishnumati river whose southern limit was marked by the confluence of the Bagmati River and Bishnumati River in a place called Teku Dovan. The pre- existing settlements of Yambu and Yangal were merged into the Kantipur city. The town was planned in the shape of Manjushree's sword with the tip positioned to north and the base to the south, with the perimeter of Kathmandu defined by building temples of the eight mother goddesses (Ajima); which still exist today.
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This underlines the problems of interpretation. Symbols that Graan explains as snowy weather, a ship, rain and squirrels in the trees, are interpreted by Manker as the wind god Bieggolmai/Biegkålmaj, a boat sacrifice, a weather god and – among other suggestions – as a forest spirit. At the Freavnantjahke gievrie there is a symbol explained by the owner as "a Sami riding in his pulk behind his reindeer", while Manker suggests that "this might be an ordinary sleigh ride, but we might as well assume that this is the noaidi, the drum owner, going on an important errand into the spiritual world". On the other hand, one might suggest that the owner of the Freavnantjahke gievrie, Bendik Andersen, is under-communicating the spiritual content of the drum when the symbols usually recognized as the three mother goddesses are explained as "men guarding the reindeer".
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Some scholars suggest a direct continuity between Palaeolithic female figurines and later examples of female depictions from the Neolithic or Bronze Age.Walter Burkert, Homo Necans (1972) 1983:78, with extensive bibliography, including P.J. Ucko, who contested the identification with mother goddesses and argues for a plurality of meanings, in Anthropomorphic Figurines of Predynastic Egypt and Neolithic Crete with Comparative Material from the Prehistoric Near East and Mainland Greece (1968). A female figurine which has 'no practical use and is portable' and has the common elements of a Venus figurine (a strong accent or exaggeration of female sex linked traits, and the lack of complete lower limbs) may be considered to be a Venus figurine, even if archaeological evidence suggests it was produced after the main Palaeolithic period. Some figurines matching this definition originate from the Neolithic era and into the Bronze Age.
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The Thánh Trần worship (tín ngưỡng Đức Thánh Trần) is a spiritual practice in Vietnamese folk religion associated with the spirit of historical general Trần Hưng Đạo, who repulsed the Mongolian invasions. The shrines are sometimes collectively called Trần Triều, literally "Trần dynasty". Mediumship with the spirit of Thánh Trần is part of votive dance lên đồng mediumship and particularly associated with Đạo Mẫu (道母), mother goddess worship.Philip Taylor Modernity and Re-Enchantment: Religion in Post-Revolutionary Vietnam 2007 Page 239 "A female master medium of both Saint Trần and Mother Goddesses, as well as the owner of a Saint Trần shrine told me: If ... But if you are one of Saint Trần's children [con cái cửa Thánh], you can speak quietly or gently and students will still ..." Mediums are mainly female, possession of a male by the spirit is viewed as unusual.
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However, as Christianity increasingly spread among gentiles with traditions of religious images, and especially after the conversion of Constantine (c. 312), the legalization of Christianity, and, later that century, the establishment of Christianity as the state religion of the Roman Empire, many new people came into the new large public churches, which began to be decorated with images that certainly drew in part on imperial and pagan imagery: "The representations of Christ as the Almighty Lord on his judgment throne owed something to pictures of Zeus. Portraits of the Mother of God were not wholly independent of a pagan past of venerated mother-goddesses. In the popular mind the saints had come to fill a role that had been played by heroes and deities."Henry Chadwick, The Early Church (The Penguin History of the Church, 1993), 283; Hurlbut, J. L. The Story of the Christian Church.
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At the end of the ceremony is the establishment of the role of the wife and husband in the husband's home.. The first step in the marriage ceremony is called Purbanga. In the kitchen of their homes, the bride and the groom worship the seven Mother Goddesses as so to pay respect to their ancestors and ask for peace. In the second, third, and fourth step, the groom is then blessed by his mother and is taken outside to his jagya where his father and procession (janti) carry him and bring gifts for the bride to her house in a ceremony called dulähä anmäune. In the fifth step as the groom waits before the house of the bride, gifts of clothes and food are placed around the jagya; the father of the bride then places red paste on the groom's forehead indicating that he is no longer an outsider to his family.
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It is suggested that Eastern European Venuses have an emphasis on the breasts and stomach, whereas Western European ones emphasise the hips and thighs. The earliest interpretations of the Venuses believed these were literal representations of women with obesity or steatopygia (a condition where a woman's body stores more fat in the thighs and buttocks, making them especially prominent). Another early hypothesis was that ideal womanhood for EEMH involved obesity, or that the Venuses were used by men as erotica due to the exaggeration of body parts typically sexualised in Western Culture (as well as the lack of detail to individualising traits such as the face and limbs). However, extending present-day Western norms to Palaeolithic peoples was contested, and a counter interpretation is that either Venuses were mother goddesses, or that EEMH believed depictions of things had magical properties over the subject, and that such a depiction of a pregnant woman would facilitate fertility and fecundity.
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With many experiences in organizing and directing music program, in 2011, Việt Tú decided to set up Dream Studio to produce high quality art programs. In addition to the personal show and customer events of many leading artists such as Tùng Dương, Trần Thu Hà, Phương Linh, Mỹ Tâm, Dream Studio is also the company taking over the series Không gian âm nhạc (Music Space) and management of many other names of Vietnamese music, including Phạm Thu Hà. Her debut album, Classic Meets Chillout, produced by Dream Studio was awarded for the "Album of the Year" and also nominated for "New Artist of the Year" in Dedication Music Award 2013. In 2013, Việt Tú became a theater director, with the establishment of Viet Theatre Company to promote Vietnamese culture to a large number of domestic and global tourists. The first show of Viet Theatre is the Tứ Phủ (Four Palaces), inspired by the Practices related to the Viet Beliefs in Mother Goddesses – an UNESCO’s intangible cultural heritage of humanity.
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John Legate's Alma Mater for Cambridge in 1600 Although alma (nourishing) was a common epithet for Ceres, Cybele, Venus, and other mother goddesses, it was not frequently used in conjunction with mater in classical Latin. In the Oxford Latin Dictionary, the phrase is attributed to Lucretius' De rerum natura, where it is used as an epithet to describe an earth goddess: Denique caelesti sumus omnes semine oriundi omnibus ille idem pater est, unde alma liquentis umoris guttas mater cum terra recepit (2.991–93) We are all sprung from that celestial seed, all of us have same father, from whom earth, the nourishing mother, receives drops of liquid moisture After the fall of Rome, the term came into Christian liturgical usage in association with the Virgin Mary. "Alma Redemptoris Mater" is a well-known 11th century antiphon devoted to Mary. The earliest documented use of the term to refer to a university in an English-speaking country is in 1600, when the University of Cambridge printer, John Legate, began using an emblem for the university's press.
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